upon so soon, but, you know, at the time, syria was looking, you know, as the sequential arab revolts came into being, there was very few places where the united states had an easy or even a conceivable influence -- edge to come in and do something where the consequences were not dramatic. they were at least, you know, there could be a pos five, you know, of course, egypt, a long-time ally anchor in the middle east, supportive of israel, and tunisia was a little bit, but, by that point, already crossed the threshold and ali was out, and syria, the comparisons with libya are quite, you know, very different. it's a multisectarian society with lots and lots of, you know, connections to other powers into which are iran, lebanon, israel, you know, where disrupting or changing that relationship could have all sorts of consequences which are unknown. libya presented a -- was unique that that the libyans -- there was a popular uprising, there was a program that had been put forth by a small group of people who had put themselves forward instead of on the first unofficial, then increasingly of
